Is there a comprehensive list/ranking of Macro lenses?

[Canonised]

I have been shooting product photography for some years now and having tried Canon's lenses as well as Tamron Sigma etc (none to me comes close), I am now considering experimenting with German and French exotic glass. My goal is to shoot at 1:1 macro but being able to print as large as A0 with sharpness. I have seen a French lens used on a 1Ds 3 before and the results was absolutely amazing. I believe its an Angienuex (not sure if I spelt that right). Unfortunately I cannot also recall the precise name of the lens nor can I find it anywhere.

I was hoping those who are more experienced here would be able to share with me about this lens or any other renowned top quality glass for serious work photography. I use a 5D2 so I hope to find adapters to use these exotic glass as well.

Any help is welcomed!
THanks!

[LordV]

Fraid can't help with the specific lenses.
In general all macro lenses by major manufacturers have extremely sharp optics (canon L type standard.
Unfortunately in macro there are many things that affect image sharpness apart from the lens optics. You are always battling with DOF and the normal way round this is to shut down the aperture. Unfortunately doing this puts you into the diffraction softening zone. A macro lens at 1:1 starts to be noticeably diffraction softened around F8 ( on a 1.6 crop camera) and gets worse thereafter. Obviously motion softening is also exaggerated in macro.
Have fun with your project.

Brian v.